By Eric Lusk
Sports Editor
elusk@elkintribune.com

East Wilkes got complete-game gems from two of its top pitchers and finished the regular season with wins over Starmount and Alleghany the past two nights.

Micah Bryan struck out 16 and allowed just four hits Wednesday in a 2-1 barn-burner over Starmount. Derrick Brown followed suit with a career-high 13 strikeouts, surrendering only three hits, in Thursday’s 7-1 triumph over Alleghany.

The two victories help East finish 10-6 in the Mountain Valley 1A/2A standings, tied with Starmount and Forbush for third place behind Wilkes Central (15-1) and West Wilkes (12-4).

The Cardinals, by virtue of sweeping Forbush and being the only team to beat champion Wilkes Central, will take the No. 3 seed into next week’s conference tournament.

If Brown and Bryan pitch like they did the past few nights, East could be a tough out in the post-season.

Opportunistic offense on Wednesday helped Bryan pick up his second monumental win in a week’s time. Garrett Holbrook hit an RBI double in the third inning to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. The Cardinals added another run in the top of the sixth when Jordan Brown scooted home on a passed ball.

Starmount got one run back in the bottom of the sixth after a throwing error on East Wilkes at third base. The Rams had other chances to tie it, but couldn’t push another score across.

Bryan, the only pitcher to beat Wilkes Central this season, faced bases loaded with no outs in one inning but worked out of the jam. The Cardinals foiled a squeeze play in that frame. Starmount sent a runner home after a wild pitch on another sequence, but East catcher Nathan Bell flipped the ball back to Bryan in time for the tag out.

“They walked us 10 times, and we took advantage of what they gave us,” East Wilkes coach Jeremy Helton said. “Caleb Shoupe (who scored on Holbrook’s double) walked four times.”

East Wilkes built an early lead against Alleghany and Brown made sure the Trojans didn’t rally with one of his best efforts of the season.

“Our defense was awesome,” Helton said. “And we ran the bases real well tonight. We made an adjustment at the plate and had a lot of base runners.”

Shoupe had a key RBI. Brown doubled and finished with two RBIs.

MVAC coaches will meet Saturday to discus details of the conference tournament. As it stands now, first-round games will be played at the higher seed on Monday night. The semifinals and championship games will be played at Forbush sometime later in the week, possibly Tuesday-Thursday.

The No. 9 team, Alleghany, does not make the tournament field. The most likely first-round pairings will be (8) Ashe County at (1) Wilkes Central, (7) North Wilkes at (2) West Wilkes, (6) Elkin at (3) East Wilkes and (5) Forbush at (4) Starmount.